HGCA-funded research is looking for better ways to tackle blackgrass in minimum cultivation systems. You stand to lose 1 pound/ha if you leave just one blackgrass head/sq m in your wheat. With that in mind it's not surprising many growers won't swapploughing for cheaper methods of cultivation. Good ploughing helps control blackgrass by burying seed deep enough to prevent emergence. But it comes at a cost. A typical plough-based system costs 85-120 pound/ha, while minimum cultivations could be 50 pound/ha less. The trouble is shallow, non-inversion tillage doesn't bury blackgrass seeds, leaving growers dependant on a high level of control pre-drilling, says ADAS Boxworth's Dr Sarah Cook. But there could be ways of reducing the blackgrass burden under minimum cultivations to allow major fixed cost savings, she suggests.
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